Bittersweet and Strange
by Erik's Champion
Summary: Season0 & Beauty & the Beast-inspired AU. The Pharaoh's pendant was their only hope of salvation: if he could learn to love another, and earn their love in return, the Pendant could be reassembled and his memories would be restored. But as the eons passed, the Pharaoh's heart receded into darkness, and they gradually lost all hope. For who could ever love the embodiment of despair?
1. Chapter 1

Full disclosure: I don't own Yugioh, Beauty and the Beast, or even the idea for this story. My inspiration for yugioh/musical crossovers comes entirely from WritingAmateur.

* * *

Prologue

Thousands of years ago, when the sands of Egypt were still young and the waters of the Nile still untainted and clear, the kingdom of the Pharaoh rested on a beam of shimmering, golden sun.

The Pharaoh's court lived in splendor and ease, untroubled by any thought of cold or darkness. However, the prosperity of this inner kingdom did not spread far beyond the palace walls, and in the shadowed corners of the city and fallow slopes of the countryside, sharp whispers of dissent began to rattle the air.

The courtiers, shrouded as they were in the dazzling veil of youth and privilege, paid no mind to the rumbling of the common people outside their palace walls—until it was already too late.

Sensing that the time of revolution was at hand, the Pharaoh's guardian stole away to the outskirts of the kingdom, armed with a book of dark, forbidden magic and an army of one hundred men. They raced against the night to the small village of Kul Elna, where only the most ruthless and desperate dared reside.

Following the text of the forbidden scriptures, the Pharaoh's guardian performed an ancient ritual that sealed the fate of the villagers of Kul Elna—and his own kingdom. The pharaoh's army unleased fire and bloodshed on the villagers, forging their spirits into seven mystical and all-powerful items: an Eye, Key, Ring, Necklace, Scale, Scepter, and Pendant. With these items in the possession of the court, the Pharaoh's guardian believed that his kingdom would forever be safe from whatever danger might dare threaten it.

But there was something the Pharaoh's guardian did not know: in addition to immense and unspeakable power, these seven Millennium Items also unleashed a great and frightening evil—an evil strong enough to corrupt the hearts of those who wielded them.

When the Pharaoh's guardian bestowed his new gifts upon the court, their hearts were consumed by a merciless thirst for power, callousness, and cruelty. They turned the dark and mighty magic of the Millennium Items against their own people, and even the wisest of the Pharaoh's priests and magicians were unable to control the energy contained within. In the battle than ensued, the Millennium Pendant was shattered—taking with it the memories of its bearer—the Pharaoh himself.

The battle cast a dark spell upon the palace. Those who had survived were forced to reside in a gloomy and frightening spirit world—neither alive nor dead, completely estranged from all the joys they had once known. The Pharaoh's pendant was their only hope of salvation: if the Pharaoh could learn to love another, and earn their love in return, the Pendant could be reassembled, his memories would be restored, and he and his court would find peace in the afterlife. If not, they would be doomed to wander like shadows through the human world for all time.

As the eons passed, the Pharaoh's heart receded further into darkness, and his courtiers gradually lost all hope. For, whose heart could ever be strong enough to love the embodiment of bitterness and despair?

* * *

Chapter 1 - Belle

"Hey, Yuugi, look out!"

"Huh?...Ow!" Yuugi winced and rubbed his forehead, glaring at the bright orange basketball as it bounced away and was snatched up by a member of the opposing team.

"Ha—sorry, Yuugi! I guess I didn't see you there." Honda sneered and casually tossed the ball towards the basket. "You better look out better next time."

Jounouchi rolled his eyes and groaned. "Look, Yuugi, if you want to play on my team you have to pay attention."

"Forget it," Honda continued, chuckling, "Yuugi's hopeless at this game. You'd be better off playing with a monkey, Jou. At least a monkey wouldn't space out in the middle of a game…"

The two exchanged a mischievous glance. "Hey, Yuugi, what were you thinking about just now?"

Yuugi spoke to his shoes. "It's nothing really, nothing important…"

"Ah, c'mon," Honda cajoled him. "Important enough that you let yourself get hit in the head with a basketball. Spit it out already."

Jounouchi Katsuya and Honda Hitoro—the two opposing sides on the spectrum of justice. Jounouchi—the alleged former gangster who never thought twice about talking back to teachers or forcibly procuring pocket money from his classmates (often with the assistance of his fists). In fact, he rarely thought twice about anything at all. And Honda—the twice-elected class president who made no qualm about using his rank to cut in the lunch line and 'solicit' academic assistance from his more studious peers during exam season. Sometimes when the exams themselves were still in progress and their teacher was conveniently looking the other way.

Together, with their greasy, brutish faces, crude jokes, and smug voices, they were perfectly cast for the roles of crooked king and enterprising outlaw—figures that loomed both larger than life and significantly larger than Yuugi.

"Well," Yuugi giggled and tried to hide his inflamed cheeks behind his bangs. "You'll think it's stupid, but—" he fished into his pocket and carefully extracted a fistful of notched wooden blocks. "It's a type of puzzle, you see," he explained, holding one of the pieces up for Jounouchi to scrutinize. "You have all these different-shaped puzzle pieces, and you have to find a way to put them all together to make one shape. The shapes are usually pretty complex. I've completed a simple puzzle like this before, but this one is much harder! I haven't quite figured it out yet." His voice became stronger and more steady as he spoke, his eyes larger and brighter. "It's a lot of fun!"

"Eh, really?" Jounouchi looked skeptical, but accepted the piece that Yuugi placed in his palm. His eyes flashed. "Hey, Honda, catch!" He hurled the piece at Honda, who laughed and darted to the opposite side of the basketball court.

"Looks pretty dumb to me," he chuckled and threw the piece back at Jounouchi. "You can keep it!"

"Guys, please be careful!" Yuugi pleaded. "If I lose any of the pieces then I won't be able to complete the puzzle!"

"Why do you bother with stuff like this, Yuugi?" Jounouchi tossed the pieced back on Honda. "When you could be doing something that actually matters?"

"The puzzle does matter to me…"

Jounouchi and Honda snickered. "That's your problem, Yuugi. You should think less about these stupid games and puzzles and more about normal stuff."

"…normal stuff?"

"Yeah," Jounouchi smirked at him. "God, Yuugi, you're such a little kid, y'know that?"

Yuugi frowned. "Please just give me my puzzle piece back."

"You hear that—he said _please_! Think we should give it to him, Jou?"

Jounouchi pretended to consider. "Maybe…we should make him work for it!" Jounouchi dangled the puzzle piece a few inches above Yuugi's head. "Hey Yuugi, how high can you jump?"

"Hey—back off, idiots!" Jounouchi and Honda paled at the voice they heard behind them.

"Oh _shit_!"

"It's Anzu!"

It was too late to run. Anzu marched onto the basketball court—arms crossed, hips jutting, fiery glare fixed firmly on Honda and Jounouchi. "What do you think you're doing?!" She demanded. "Can't you see that's he hurt? And you continue taunting him? You guys are disgusting."

"Okay, okay," Jounouchi winced under the weight of her condemnation. "Chill out, Anzu." He shoved the puzzle piece back into Yuugi's fist. "It's his—happy?"

Anzu turned her attention to Yuugi as the two boys sauntered off, shooting her irritated glares over their shoulders occasionally. "Those boys are so infuriating," she huffed, teeth on edge. "Are you okay Yuugi? I saw what happened to you…"

"I'm fine, really!" If Yuugi had been blushing before, his cheeks were flaming now.

Anzu bent down closer to examine the bruises that were blossoming on his cheek. "Are you sure? Your face looks kind of swollen. Come with me, I'll help you clean up."

Yuugi raced after her towards the school building. Anzu might have been bestowed with the long legs and burgeoning candor of a formerly downy young girl pecking her way into womanhood, but to Yuugi—except for the moments when he was (fruitlessly) trying to sneak a peak down her top—she was the same round-eyed childhood companion who had taught him how to play jacks on the sticky cement blacktop in the park, who he had once made laugh so hard that milk had shot out her nose and she hadn't been able to drink it for weeks afterwards. In her face he saw the iridescent layers of those tender memories—blinking in and out of focus with the light just like the freckles on her nose.

"You didn't have to do that, y'know."

She sighed. "I know I didn't have to, Yuugi. It's just—ugh—boys like that get on my nerves so much! Trying to take advantage of people like that!"

"Take advantage…no it's like that," Yuugi laughed. "We're friends—we were just playing!"

Anzu's lips twisted and her pace slowed. "Yuugi—"

Yuugi looked up at her. He was still clenching the puzzle pieces tightly in his chubby fingers. "What is it?"

She shook her head. "Never mind. I'll tell you another time."

Anzu led Yuugi back to their classroom, which was empty save one seat in the back.

"Wait here a minute—I'll go get some ice and towels and I'll help you with your face."

When Anzu returned Yuugi was still toying with the pieces of his puzzle, brows furrowed and tongue protruding slightly.

"So this puzzle is really important to you, huh?" Anzu asked as she sat at the desk next to him, wrapping an ice pack in a paper towel.

Yuugi shrugged. "It's really just for fun. I know I should be better at paying attention, but when I get a new puzzle to solve it's hard to think about anything else until I find the solution." He smiled in a way that looked more like an expression of melancholy than contentment. Puzzles were easier than people. Puzzles didn't hit him the face with basketballs. Puzzles didn't make him feel as if the world was a secret that everyone was keeping from him—a note hastily scrawled on a scrap of paper and passed around under the tables during class. "I guess that means that I'm not too great at sports, though. The team I'm on always loses…"

Anzu rolled her eyes. "Don't worry too much about that. You know those boys just use basketball as an excuse to look up girls' skirts—when they can get the girls to play with them, that is." Her expression was sour. "It's despicable. I wonder though, what made you so interested in these types of games?"

"Oh!" This time Yuugi's smile was whole and his voice sparkled. "I live in a game shop with my grandpa! He gets all the best games and puzzles, and I get to try them all!"

"Hm, gameshop? That's interesting."

"Yeah! And he gets all the gaming news, too! There's this one game—Duel Monsters—that he thinks is really going to take off. He's been collecting cards for ages, before most people even knew about it, and he has some really cool rare cards. He's teaching me to duel—though I'm not very good yet."

"Hm, what is Duel Monsters about?"

"It's really interesting," Yuugi effused. "What's great about it is it's a really great strategy game, but there is a strong fantasy component as well. You use monster cards to attack your opponent and defend your life points, and magic and trap cards to augment your monsters. Grandpa says you have to build a really strong connection with the monsters in your deck—you have to give them your loyalty and duel with honor—you have to put your heart into your dueling. Otherwise the monsters, even the really powerful ones, aren't worth anything. Grandpa has a card that he says is the one closest to his heart, the Blue Eyes White Dragon—"

There was a loud crash behind them.

"Hm," Yuugi turned around to see Kaiba hunched over, picking his book and his jaw up off the floor. "Are you okay, Kaiba-kun?"

"Y-yes!" Kaiba stammered as he shot to his feet and slithered toward them, eyes wide and face slightly paler than usual. "Yuugi, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation—do you also play Duel Monsters?"

"Yeah—"

"And your grandfather is the possessor of one of the legendary Blue Eyes White Dragon cards?" Kaiba leaned closer, and at short range Yuugi could see that while his eyes were clear and placid, his eyelid was twitching slightly.

"Yeah. A good friend gave it to him a long time ago."

Kaiba stepped away suddenly. "How cool! I myself am a very accomplished Duel Monsters player—and the Blue Eyes White Dragon card is my personal favorite." He struggled to keep his voice solid and calm, but it was burning at the edges. "If I could—I would love to see it sometime."

Yuugi beamed. "Of course! Grandpa always says that games are best when shared with friends—I'm sure he'd love to show you his card since it means so much to him."

Kaiba scoffed slightly. _Friends_.

"We could even duel sometime—I bet you could teach me a lot!"

Kaiba giggled. He had a way of making laughter sound like a chore—a complex technical skill that could only be mastered through endless hours of tireless training and fastidious note-taking. Despite Kaiba Seto's formidable genius, the end product of his studies was a laugh that conveyed very little humor and that most found profoundly unsettling. Fortunately for Kaiba, Yuugi was not one of them.

"I don't know, Yuugi. You'd have to be pretty good to be worthy of dueling me. I am the national Duel Monsters champion, and I have hundreds of strong cards and no time to go around giving tips to amateurs like you."

"Wow, I didn't know that there were Duel Monster championships! You must be a really strong duelist, Kaiba-kun."

Kaiba smirked, tossing back his head. "I am. The best in the world. But—" his breath caught. "The Blue Eyes White Dragon! With that card…I would be completely unstoppable!" He grinned, and his dazzling white teeth just barely contained the dark claws of his feral appetite. "I would do _anything_ for that card." He contorted his face into a ghastly travesty of a smile (like laughter, his smiling skills left much to be desired). "But then again, what kind of duelist would I be if I didn't share my love of the game with my—_friends_?"

Kaiba began to trace slow circles around Yuugi's desk, clenching his fists until the knuckles turned white. "Maybe I will help you, Yuugi," he mused. "And in return, you can do something for me."

"Sure! Is there something I can help you with?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Please, Yuugi—I've never needed help from anyone. Hmph." As if he had earned all his Duel Monsters trophies by holding hands and having feelings. "In exchange for the privilege of my mentorship, you can let me use your grandfather's Blue Eyes card!"

Yuugi squirmed. "I don't know, Kaiba-kun. Grandpa's pretty protective of that card…"

Kaiba leaned over him, planting his hands on Yuugi's desk and letting his voice slip into a soft whisper. "Your grandfather couldn't make just one exception? For me?"

Yuugi could feel himself blushing again, and began to fidget. "Well, maybe under different circumstances, but he's about to leave town for a while—and I don't think he'd like it if I let someone use his Blue Eyes without him there to supervise…"

"Your grandfather is absurd," Kaiba huffed and crossed his arms. "He can't possibly appreciate the power of that card."

"He's just very protective of his treasures…You can come by and see it, though! I'm sure grandpa wouldn't mind that!"

"Hm, how _generous_." He rose and began to glide back to his post at the back of the classroom. "I may take you up on that, Yuugi."

"Ugh, what a creep," Anzu groaned as soon as Kaiba was once again absorbed in his books. "Did you see the way he was leering at you like that? It weirds me out."

Yuugi frowned. "I think Kaiba-kun is nice, I think." He tried to laugh, but the sound came out a little colder than usual. Maybe that was one of the side effects of talking to Kaiba—forgetting how to laugh. "I mean, he loves Duel Monsters—so how bad could he be?"

Anzu frowned. "If I were you, I wouldn't want to find out."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – No Matter What, Wolf Chase

There was one place Yuugi knew where the sun always shone, where voices were always soft and warm, where the air shimmered and blossomed with a kind of attentive vibrancy that Yuugi felt nowhere else. Even when rain tore at the ground; when the sky was frosted, bitter, and cold; when Yuugi couldn't find a smiling face or kind disposition anywhere else on Earth, the Kame Game Shop was where everything was smooth, soft, and safe where—no matter how often the shelves were restocked or merchandise discontinued—nothing important ever really changed. The walls might have been repainted, the glass cases replaced, and the floor retiled, but the building still embraced him with as much brown sugar and honey affection now as when he was a child—smiling as he learned to sweep the threshold with a broom that was taller than him, pouring over the candy-colored puzzle boxes that dazzled him far more than the things they tried to teach him at school.

The bell chimed as he opened the front door—it was always happy to welcome him home.

"I'm back, grandpa!" Yuugi called, shedding his book bag and school jacket behind the cash register.

"I'm back here, Yuugi. Come help me move some of these cases."

Yuugi followed his grandpa's voice to the small dusty office in the back of the shop where Sugoruko Mutou was double-checking the contents of his suitcases, brow furrowed in concentration.

"It's the darndest thing, Yuugi. I'm sure I packed my set of trowels, but now I can't seem to find them anywhere."

Yuugi sank next to his grandpa's precariously-stacked suitcases, each stuffed just shy of bursting with heavily creased maps of the Valley of the Kings, mud-crusted sets of old dental tools and blow dryers, stacks of musty history books, canteens, and—snuggly nested on top of his knapsack—his lucky pack of Duel Monsters cards. To ward off the cold and the exhaustion that sometimes settled over dig sites at night, grandpa had said.

Yuugi sighed as he began to shift through the contents of the cases. His grandpa had always been an adventurer at heart. For as long as Yuugi could remember he had been lured by the song of uncharted waters, had chased after the crisp whispers of an unknown dawn that was always just out of reach. And Yuugi had watched and waited by the windowsill with balled fists and watery eyes for the moment of his return—when he would barge through the door bearing new games and new stories of a world that made Yuugi feel impossibly fragile and small. Yuugi always tried to smile and ignore the fissures forming in his heart.

"Yuugi…" Sugoruko placed a hand on his grandson's shoulder. "I'll only be gone for a week. And just think, when I come back I'll have some amazing new puzzles for you to solve!"

Yuugi looked up and smiled softly. "I know. Thanks, grandpa—I can't wait to see them!"

"Yuugi, oh dear," Sugoruko took Yuugi's chin in his hand and pulled him slightly closer. "What happened to your face?"

"Oh, nothing." Yuugi pulled away and kept his eyes downcast, pretending to repack one of his grandpa's cases. "It was an accident."

"Hm." Sugoruko crossed his arms and surveyed Yuugi's face the same way he might an ancient Mesopotamian burial ground. Since entering high school the frequency of the accidents that left Yuugi stumbling home from school with a bruised eye or busted lip had increased significantly. But Yuugi had never mentioned them—he had never mentioned his school life much at all.

Sugoruko took a seat on an upturned crate. "Yuugi, is there anything you'd like to tell me?"

Yuugi shook his head but answered anyway. "I wish you didn't have to go." His voice trembled.

Sugoruko sighed. "I hate leaving you alone here, Yuugi. I wonder is there someone you could invite over—to keep you company while I'm gone?"

Yuugi didn't answer for several moments, choosing instead to stack and restack the travel guides in the corner of one of the suitcases. When he did speak, his voice came out in crystalline, wavering syllables that seemed to disappear before they had ever truly had a chance to fully materialize. "I don't know."

Sugoruko ran his fingers through his beard, trying to dig through his old, dusty cases of memories for a few sun-splotched recollections of when Yuugi had babbled on and on about his gang of amiable allies while helping to re-stock the shelves. Sugoruko had never paused to consider how much time had passed since those days, how it seemed that his peers had shot up like bamboo sprouts and left Yuugi still a tender seedling struggling for sunlight and fresh air. How Yuugi had grown so old, and yet remained so young.

"What about, hm…Anzu? You used to talk about her quite a bit."

Yuugi shrugged, not looking any less dejected. "Anzu is nice, but she mostly hangs out with other girls now. We haven't been real friends in years. And besides," his frown deepened. "She thinks I'm a wimp—she just feels bad for me."

"I'm sure she doesn't think that—"

"Of course she does!" Yuugi exclaimed, standing suddenly. "Everybody does!" His fists were clenched tight, face searing with clumsily suppressed anger.

"And what do you think, Yuugi? Do you think that you're a wimp?" Yuugi was silent, but his dim eyes, slumped shoulders, and stubbornly protruding lip spoke of a sadness too profound to require articulation.

"I wish I was as brave as you," he whispered. "I—I wish I wasn't so afraid of…everything."

"Yuugi…" Sugoruko patted the spot next to him on the crate. "Come here. There is something important I'd like to show you."

Yuugi complied, sinking to his grandfather's side.

"Do you remember what I told you about what it means to have the heart of a duelist?"

"A true duelist duels with all his heart."

"And puts his heart into every card of his deck." Sugoruko held his cards between the two of them, fanning them out so that the claws of the fearsome monsters and swords and smoke on the magic cards caught and shimmered in the light. "I spent years assembling this deck, Yuugi. And I put a little bit of my heart into each and every card in it. Now, whenever I duel, and wherever I go, I know I have a little band of brave spirits besides me, spirits who would do anything for me. And I would do anything for them. They help me find my courage when I think I've lost it. And Yuugi—that's a very important part of being brave, being able to trust others to help you when you can't make it through on your own. It takes a lot of courage to trust that way."

He carefully leafed through his deck, gazing at each card with reverence. "Yuugi, you have the kindest and most trusting heart of anyone I know, and that makes you incredibly brave. But—" he repacked his cards and placed them in Yuugi's palm. "I want you to have these—in case you ever forget."

"B-but—Grandpa!" Yuugi stammered! "I can't possibly take these! These cards are so important to you…"

Sugoruko wrapped his arm around Yuugi's shoulders and planted a kiss on his forehead. "Not really as important as you."

Yuugi smiled like the first breath of spring washing away bleak memories of winter. "Thank you, grandpa. I'll take great care of them."

"I know you will." Sugoruko patted Yuugi on the back and rose. "Ah, there are those trowels—right where I thought they'd be! Too many cobwebs in this old brain of mine…"

Yuugi giggled, clutching his grandpa's deck close to his chest, as if to feel the hearts of his new monsters fluttering alongside his own. "Tell me again about the Egyptian puzzle."

Sugoruko snickered. The legend of the Millennium Puzzle had been his favorite bedtime story since his infancy. "You probably know it better than I do at this point, why don't you tell me?"

"I like the way you tell it."

"Well, alright then," Sugoruko paused, wiping his hands on his overalls. "Let's see…once upon a time, in ancient Egypt, a great pharaoh and his courtiers lived in an enchanted castle. They were powerful sorcerers, and used their formidable magic to rule their kingdom with fairness and reason. But, a terrible war broke out and threatened to tear the kingdom apart. In order to save it, the pharaoh cast a powerful spell that shattered his magical pendant, turning it into the Millennium Puzzle and destroying his own memories. The Puzzle broke so completely that no one in the pharaoh's court could reassemble it. It is said that only one with a pure heart can put the puzzle back together, and when they do, that person will be granted one wish in return for their kindness and compassion. But the pieces of the puzzle remain buried in the sands of the Valley of the Kings, and no one has yet been able to find them, let alone put the puzzle back together."

"And you're going to find the puzzle."

Sugoruko chuckled. "That's the plan."

"And solve it."

"Hm, I don't know about that. It is said that the puzzle is incredibly complicated." He smiled over his shoulder at Yuugi. "You might want to give it a try, though."

Yuugi smiled and blushed. "I don't know…I'm still working on this last one that you gave me…"

"Hm. Just give it time and keep trying, Yuugi. I'm sure the solution will come to you when you're least expecting it."

Yuugi continued to smile down at his new cards, gently caressing their faces with his fingertips. "I think I might have made a new friend today, Grandpa."

"That's wonderful, Yuugi! Tell me about this friend of yours."

"His name is Kaiba. He is a Duel Monsters expert! We're going to duel together and he's going to help me improve."

Sugoruko ruffled Yuugi's hair. "I'm glad. But if he's really that good I'll have to take a turn against him sooner or later." He smiled ruefully. "You know I can't let these young upstarts get too full of themselves."

-xxx-

"It's supposed to be somewhere around here…" Sugoruko squinted at his map. "Would you mind bringing the lamp a little closer, Arthur?"

Professor Hopkins stepped closer, peering over his friend's shoulder. He didn't speak, but Sugoruko could tell that the long, hot hours spend roaming the desert day after day had begun to take a toll—Arthur's shoulders were sagging, his gaze—while kind and warm as ever—was becoming distant and dejected.

"Perhaps it's hopeless, Sugoruko," he sighed. "Perhaps the university was correct—there never has been any evidence that the legend of the Millennium Puzzle is any more than that…a legend." The battles that Professor Hopkins had fought over the years in university halls and at academic conferences had worn wrinkles in his face and etched his voice with a vein of disillusionment. He had grown accustomed to derision, but disappointment—hope slowly wasting away to shadows and ash—was a new sensation that made him feel more blank and black than the starless night sky encroaching upon them.

"Don't speak that way, Arthur. We've only explored a small fraction of the Valley, I'm sure if we keep looking we'll find the ancient palace."

Arthur shook his head. "I envy your optimism, old friend. But this has been a decades-long journey for me, and with only scant physical evidence…well, I suppose I'm just getting tired."

Sugoruko squeezed Arthur's shoulder. "I understand. Why don't you go back to the tent early to rest and I'll join you in a couple hours."

Arthur frowned. "Are you sure, Sugoruko? The desert is not particularly forgiving to solitary travelers."

Sugoruko smiled. "I'll be fine. The desert can never really harm anyone who approaches it with the appropriate sense of adventure and respect."

Arthur smiled. "If you insist. Though do remember to be careful."

It wasn't until Arthur's silhouette sank into the horizon that Sugoruko noticed the way the desert cold—so much more harsh and absolute than what he experienced in Japan—seemed to sink talons into his skin and gnaw on his bones. It was a cold that turned his heart into twisted stone; that made any memory of sunshine, warmth, or happiness feel decrepit and sour.

Sugoruko clenched his arms tighter around his chest and tried to trudge on through the darkness with only his faintly flickering lamp for guidance. He shuddered when it cast demonic shadows across the sands— jagged fangs and pitiless claws that all pointed directly to him, and seemed to be creeping closer.

There was a feeling Sugoruko knew, the eerie silence, the tense stillness of the world just before an earthquake. It was like the soles of his feet, the back of his neck, the pit of his stomach could see something that his eyes could not, could still speak to the small shadowy corners of the human mind that had been nearly but not quite obliterated by centuries of technological advance. It was the feeling that the world was about to fundamentally change, that a molten force imprisoned in the center of the earth was about to rupture the surface, to tear apart everything familiar and make the world rattle on its axis. And there was no way to escape.

Sugoruko held his breath, listening to the low rumble of the barren horizon. And then there was the crash. His lamp went out, and the shadows attacked.

-xxx-

"Oh, you've really done it this time, Priest!" Mahaad exclaimed, eyes wide and voice strained with exasperation. He huffed. "Just wait until the Pharaoh hears about this!"

Seth shrugged. "The Pharaoh has more important matters to attend to than a little construction project."

Mahaad rushed towards the crumbling columns behind him, furiously muttering incantations (clearly it was too much to ask the Priest to even pretend to be helpful). The crumbled stones began to mend themselves and slip back into their proper places—reconstructing the wall and columns that comprised his preferred side of the dueling arena. "You truly are an agent of chaos," he muttered. "If you simply learned to temper your attacks we wouldn't all have to rush around cleaning up after you."

"And where would be the fun in that? What's the point of holding back when I'm capable of so much?" He crossed his arms and stuck out his chin, smirking. "And besides," he drawled, "it's hardly my fault that you consistently prove to be such an unworthy opponent. I would have thought that a thousand years of practice would have done you some good, but apparently I was mistaken."

Mahaad snorted. "One can never fully prepare oneself for the unrestricted callousness of your underhanded tactics."

"_Callousness_? _Underhanded_?" Seth gaped and clutched his chest in a great show of indignation. "You must have me mistaken for someone else." He put down his arm, releasing his stone dueling tablets and allowing them to fall to the ground with enough force to rattle the duel arena. Mahaad winced and shot him a sharp, dirty glare as a few more chunks of rubble fell from the ceiling. "I _never_ duel with nothing less than the highest degree of honor and dignity. You're just a sore loser."

Mahaad watched as Seth prowled between his dueling tablets, assiduously assessing the damage that been done to each monster during their combat. "You're insufferable."

Seth flashed him a wolfish grin. "I'm flattered you still feel that way. I was afraid that after a few millennia I'd begin to bore you…"

Mahaad rolled his eyes. "Believe me, Priest—" He froze midsentence, eyes wide and skin prickling. "Did you hear something?"

"Nothing but the start of another one of your punitive tirades—though to be honest I've learned to mostly tune those out."

"Oh would you—just listen!" The two stood in tense silence for a few moments until a weak, strained murmur began to echo down the corridor.

"It sounds like…a man," Mahaad whispered.

"That's not possible."

"It is perfectly possible, thanks to you." Mahaad turned on him, eyes blazing. The vein in his forehead was throbbing again. Seth seemed to be the only one capable of making it do that. "He must have fallen in when _you_ made the roof collapse," he seethed between tightly gritted teeth.

To his dismay, Seth's eyes brightened. They only shone that way when he was scheming something truly awful. "Well, Sorcerer," he sighed. "It looks like our evening just became significantly more _interesting_."

"No, Seth. You know the rules—we immediately report intruders to the Pharaoh. No Exceptions, no—"

But Seth was already gliding down the shadowy corridor, triumphantly twirling his scepter. Of course Mahaad had no choice but to trail begrudgingly behind him, muttering curses under his breath ("I'd rather babysit Mana…").

Seth followed the trail of agonized echoes that reverberated off the walls and pooled in sorrowful puddles on the floor. His fingers stung with the acute impatience of sharply piqued hunger. He could feel his teeth grow sharper, his heart grow blacker, as he approached the source of the disturbance—the crumbled, dust-coated figure of an old man crumbled on the floor, trembling slightly in what Seth presumed to be pain.

Licking his lips, he paced slow circles around the figure. It had been so long since he had fed the shadows festering inside him, and they were so very hungry…

"Please-!" the figure gasped. "Someone, great Pharaoh, please—help me…"

Seth froze. "You dare speak the name of the Pharaoh in vain, stranger?!" he snarled, grabbing the man by the back of his head and forcing his face into the pungent light emitted by his Millennium Item.

"What is it?" Mahaad asked, approaching from behind.

"I don't know, but he claims to know the Pharaoh…"

Sugoruko squinted at the two figures looming above him. Even in the semidarkness their faces struck him as oddly familiar—though the sinister energy they emitted, the way they made his stomach turn—certainly did not.

"Am…am I dead?"

Callow laughter. "You may wish for death, once I am finished with you."

Another voice, sharp and patronizing. "Don't speak that way! If this man knows the Pharaoh…"

The two faces moved closer, and the opaque puzzle pieces that had been floating in the corners of Sugoruko's rattled mind suddenly snapped together. "You!" he exclaimed. "The—bearers of the Millennium Ring! And Scepter!" It was impossible, but there was no mistaking it. It was mostly the headdresses that gave them away. Sugoruko would have recognized those anywhere. "So the legends are true! But…how—how are you…"

He tentatively extended a hand that went directly through Mahaad's chest. "This is incredible!"

Mahaad's nose crinkled in displeasure as he grasped Sugoruko's arm and rather forcibly retracted it from his chest. "What legends do you speak of, stranger?"

Sugoruko coughed. "The legends of the great Pharaoh, the master of the Millennium Items and bearer of justice and reason, beacon of kindness to all those fortunate enough to reside in his realm…"

Mahaad and Seth exchanged quizzical glances.

"Well, that settles it," Seth announced. "This man is not only injured but mentally unsound. To sacrifice his soul now would truly be the greatest kindness."

Sugoruko's eyes widened and his breath turned shallow and dry. His limbs felt numb. He was getting that earthquake feeling again. "Sacrifice my soul…what do you mean…?"

"We shouldn't be hasty," Mahaad scolded him. "This man has a connection with the Pharaoh—and to us, it seems—we should at least determine whether—"

"Knows the Pharaoh, does he?" Seth sneered. " 'bearer of justice and reason, beacon of kindness,' tell me, does that sound like any pharaoh _you_ know? It certainly doesn't to me." He scoffed. "Our Pharaoh is no beacon of anything. I'd describe him more as—"

Mahaad's strained expression forced him to stop. And then Seth felt it too. The fetid shadows that made their skin dissolve like acid, the roaring silence, the way the air seemed to both go stale and begin to boil—all of it indicative of one thing.

Sugoruko's eyes darted from one face to the other, unsure which perturbed him more. If there was a force in this world that could make the hearts of these two spirits shrivel in fear, then he was sure he wanted nothing to do with it.

"What do we have here?" Sugoruko felt the voice rather than heard it. It was like being sliced with a razorblade, like being nailed inside his own coffin.

"Pharaoh!" The one closer to him, the bearer of the Millennium Ring, knelt immediately, shaking so strongly that Sugoruko could feel the air tremble.

Something was coming closer, but Sugoruko could not tell exactly what. The ground seemed to be sinking around him, pulling him down to the center of the earth. The darkness was broiling—burning him, clouding his vision and his voice with smoke and ash.

"An intruder? And you did not report his presence to me at once?"

"I thought that—perhaps we might attend to the matter of this man's soul ourselves…"

A growl. "I, and I alone will be the judge of that. Bring him to me."

Sugoruko felt a force push his body forward, though no being was touching him. As he came closer he could just barely distinguish a teeming mess of thorny shadows, a feral grin, and a pair of eyes that smoldered like embers.

"Tell me, stranger—would you like to play a game?"


	3. Chapter 3

Me, Belle (Reprise)

Kaiba Seto was nothing if not industrious. Actually, that was putting it far too lightly. Kaiba Seto was nothing if not unabashedly inconsiderate, zealously self-serving, and devastatingly, meticulously cruel. By the supposedly tender age of sixteen, he had put companies out of business more times that he had celebrated his birthday, driven more rival CEOs into alcoholism than he had classmates (and friends), and had acquired more Duel Monsters trophies than Yuugi had cards.

It was no coincidence that his prowess in the boardroom had risen in step with his skill in the duel arena: the years spent being shepherded between orphanages, scrambling for scraps of recognition alongside scraps of bread, the stringent tutelage of his adopted father, and Kaiba's naturally ambitious and competitive nature had joined forces to produce a boy both capable of sending men three or four times his age reeling into downward spirals of misery and completely incapable of making compromises or bestowing a modicum of compassion on any unfortunate creature—including himself.

And yet, despite his multifarious accomplishments, something was still missing. A naïve observer might have guessed that it was the healing bonds of friendship, a healthy creative outlet, or perhaps even the clear conscious and profound mindfulness that can only be attained through years of extensive and excruciating therapy that Kaiba's life was severely lacking—but that was not the case. Not even close.

With great effort, Kaiba contorted his features into the closest facsimile of a cheerful smile that he could manage as he entered the Kame Game shop. His inner scowl deepened once he stepped over the threshold.

"Kaiba-kun!" Yuugi exclaimed from behind the cash register. "I wasn't expecting you to come by so soon!"

"But Yuugi, you must have known how _excited_ I am to…see you." His hand tightened around his briefcase and his eyes flickered around the shop. Where could it be? The Blue Eyes White Dragon hardly belonged among these ratty old puzzle boxes and gaudy game boards.

Yuugi rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I wasn't sure…" There was something in the exacting intensity of Kaiba'a gaze that made him feel squeamish and warm.

"Don't be silly, Yuugi-kun," Kaiba laughed ("Ha Ha Ha") and clasped Yuugi's shoulder. "There is nothing I value more than spending time with my friends."

Yuugi squirmed slightly but his smile didn't falter. Kaiba's fingertips were biting into his shoulder blade.

"Well, uh, do you want to look around first? My grandpa's shop has the coolest games!"

Kaiba bit the inside of his lip. His impatience was burning through him. He smiled. "Of course!"

Kaiba followed Yuugi up and down the aisles of the game shop, half-listening to him prattle on about how much he loved playing marbles and magic and…musical chairs? He wasn't really paying attention. Every cell in his body was attuned to the dragon—_his dragon_—trying to divine its location. He was having trouble keeping his breathing steady. Making friends was exhausting. And irritating.

"Kaiba-kun, do you play any games besides Duel Monsters?"

"Chess. Occasionally."

"That's all?"

Kaiba sighed. "I don't usually have the time to dabble in hobbies that don't prove worthwhile. I would rather hone my skills in one or two games and become the strongest player in those few than perform mediocrely in several."

Yuugi's eyes widened. "You mean you never play just for fun?"

Kaiba shrugged (somewhat clumsily, as if he were just trying out the gesture for the first time and hadn't yet perfected its mechanics). "My work keeps me busy."

Yuugi nodded. "Yeah I bet—preparing to take over your own company! That must be hard."

"It's nothing that I can't handle."

"But to have no time just to have fun! I can't imagine…"

"Don't worry about me, Yuugi-kun. Being the heir to Kaiba Corporation may be time-consuming, but it also affords me certain opportunities. Like this—" he held out his briefcase.

Yuugi's eyes swelled. "Huh, what's in there?"

Kaiba smiled, and this time it was completely genuine. Yuugi shivered and he wasn't sure why.

"These are _my_ Duel Monsters cards."

-xxx-

"I was wondering, Yuugi-kun, if I could ask you for a favor before we begin."

Yuugi looked up from laying out the Duel Monsters game board. "Uh, yeah, of course!"

"Could I…see your Blue Eyes White Dragon card?" He had been trying to keep his voice calm and casual, but even Yuugi could pick up on the frantic pins and needles that jutted out at erratic intervals.

"Yeah…sure…" Yuugi tenderly leafed through the stack of cards that grandpa had bestowed upon him. His heart stung slightly. He hadn't heard from grandpa at all since he arrived at the dig site…

Yuugi shook his head, trying to banish the fearful thoughts that made everything look murky and cold.

He was alright. He had to be alright.

The card trembled in Kaiba's fingers. He marveled at the light that danced off its surface, illuminating every fang, scale, and talon with ethereal, heart-wrenching glory. He shivered even though he felt like he had been set on fire.

This was what Kaiba's life was missing—for those of you who were still wondering. The end of his journey, and the beginning. The culmination of his struggles. The antidote to the poison that festered in his heart. Power. Freedom. Hope.

"It's beautiful," he murmured. "You are very lucky to have been given this card."

"Yeah, I know," Yuugi chimed. "It means so much to my grandpa. And it's so rare! I heard it got discontinued because it was too powerful. Hardly any were made, only something like—"

"Four," Kaiba whispered. His eyes—which had for a moment become cloudy and distant—suddenly snapped back into focus and began to drill into Yuugi's face with a bitter alacrity that sent chills down hia spine."Yuugi," the softness in his voice was fraying rapidly. "What would you say if I offered to trade you for this card?"

Before Yuugi had a chance to reply, Kaiba opened his briefcase on the card table, revealing thousands of Duel Monsters cards. Some he had only seen pictures of in guidebooks, some he had never heard of at all.

"Take as many as you want, Yuugi." His voice a low, raspy hiss now.

"Wow, Kaiba-kun!" Yuugi gasped. "That's very generous of you, but—" His eyes were beginning to sting, his bottom lip to tremble. Grandpa was all the way across the world, but the card was here. He shook his head, and there were now a few tears shimmering on his eyelashes. "I'm sorry, Kaiba-kun, but I can't do that. This card was very important to grandpa, so it's important to me, too. It makes me feel closer to him. With this card…I don't feel so—alone." Yuugi shut the briefcase and nudged it in Kaiba's direction. "I wouldn't trade it for anything."

Kaiba's eyelid twitched and his lips curled into a viciously sympathetic smirk. "Of course. I _understand_, Yuugi. I wouldn't dream of separating you from a card that clearly means so much to you." He placed his briefcase back on the floor and extended his hand towards Yuugi. "Here you go. As much as I love this card, I won't mention it again."

Yuugi nodded, accepting the Blue Eyes that Kaiba presented to him.

But the moment his fingers met its surface, something felt—off. There was no life in the card he held, no wisdom, no warmth. There was no trace of grandpa.

Kaiba didn't notice Yuugi's perturbed expression—too focused on listening to the fluttering of the little soul that now trapped in his pocket.

"Come on, Yuugi," he giggled, shuffling his deck with sharp fingers. "Let's play!"

-xxx-

Curled up on the floor an hour later, Yuugi still wasn't entirely sure what had happened. How had things grown so dark so quickly?

He had known that there was something wrong with that card. But—he had wanted so badly to believe that it was his imagination, that Kaiba-kun (Kaiba) would never betray him like that.

Had it been so wrong to believe?

Yuugi began to pick the cards up from where they were scattered on the floor. As reserved and sophisticated as Kaiba purported to be, he hadn't seemed to have had many (any) reservations about erupting into a caustic blast of brutish indignation and storming out in a fury when he lost their match.

It had started innocently enough. Kaiba certainly did have a lot of rare and powerful cards and at first Yuugi had been thrown, struggling to understand the special effects of monsters whose names he had never heard before. But he had always been a quick learner, and they had just been playing for fun—hadn't they?

In hindsight, Yuugi should have noticed that Kaiba became increasingly irritated and erratic as his life points drained away, he should have noticed the rising bitterness in his voice, he should have noticed the storm clouds forming on his face, he should have—

Yuugi buried his face in his hands, finally releasing the sobs that had been sealed in between his ribs.

"_You know you're going up against a real Duel Monsters expert, Yuugi. Do you think you can win?"_

_Yuugi laughed and averted his eyes. "I don't know. But no matter what happens, I'm sure I'll learn a lot."_

Yuugi combed through the cards on the floor. He wanted to find it but he didn't want to see it, didn't want to believe that something so horrible had caught him so utterly by surprise…

_Yuugi had dueled Kaiba into a tight corner. Down 1200 life points and with no monsters on the field to defend himself. His eyes had started doing that weird twitching thing again. He didn't want to resort to this, hadn't prepared himself for it. But his vision was narrowing in on the one thing that was keeping him alive—the one thing in life that mattered. His victory, once so certain, was escaping him. And there was nothing in his hand and nothing on the field that could save him._

_Kaiba swallowed (his mouth tasted like acid) and gingerly reached into his pocket._

"_Wh—Kaiba-kun—how?"_

_Yuugi rifled through his deck until finding the Blue Eyes card that Kaiba had returned to him. Only, it wasn't _his_ Blue Eyes card. He could see that clearly now. Not only did it bear no trace of grandpa's heart, it had no heart at all. Yuugi traced a fingertip along the surface of the counterfeit and felt cold._

"_Kaiba-kun…why?"_

_Kaiba's fingers curled around the Blue Eyes that he had laid on the field. Yuugi's Blue Eyes._

"_It takes more than dumb luck to be worthy of wielding this card," he sneered. "You don't have the strength—or the skill—to deserve this card or this victory."_

"_K-Kaiba-kun! Please give it back! That's my grandpa's—"_

"_You think I care about your stupid grandfather?!" He snarled, bearing all his teeth. He pounded his fists against the table, making it jump. "You're stupid to think that this game is all about making friends and having fun." His breath was sharp and cold. "This game is about life, and life is about winning at all costs." He crossed his arms and smirked. "But I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand that."_

_Yuugi hadn't been able to tear his eyes from the dragon card on the table. It seemed to be calling out to him, begging for rescue. He bit his bottom lip to keep it from trembling. _

"_Someone like me?" He whispered, voice on the verge of breaking._

"_Someone too cowardly and weak to see this world for what it really is. Now make your last pathetic move so I can finish you, Yuugi."_

Was that really what he was? A coward? Yuugi had kept his eyes clenched closed when he flipped over his face-down card. He had flinched and cowered when Kaiba had kicked the table over. But he hadn't felt afraid—truly afraid—until he had seen Kaiba towering over him—malice dripping from his eyes and the Blue Eyes held captive and helpless between his fingers.

"_If this card is useless to me, then—"_

_Yuugi saw a blast of lightning and heard the roar of thunder._

It couldn't have happened. Kaiba never would have—

But no. He would and he did. Yuugi trembled as he picked up one piece, then the other. The Blue Eyes White Dragon—the most powerful and majestic card in all of Duel Monsters—had been ripped in half. Yuugi clutched the pieces tight against his chest, no longer attempting to hold back the frantic, desperate sobs that wracked his body.

"I'm sorry, grandpa," he moaned. "I'm so, so sorry…"

There was a knock at the door.

-xxx-

"I don't understand," Yuugi murmured, voice black. But that wasn't exactly true—he was refusing to understand.

Professor Hopkins sighed and rubbed his temples. "I'm sorry, Yuugi. The truth is that I don't quite understand it myself. I returned to the final site we investigated together several times…but I couldn't find a trace of him anywhere. He seems to have simply—disappeared." He frowned. Several new creases had sprouted across his face in the past 24 hours. "If only I had listened to my better judgment and not let him go out there alone…"

He reached across the table to grasp Yuugi's hand, but Yuugi recoiled from his touch.

"That's just not possible. Grandpa would never put himself into danger like that."

"I know, Yuugi. But sometimes these things are just…out of our control."

Yuugi was still staring at the tattered pieces of the Blue Eyes White Dragon on the table. Maybe he would never be able to play it again, but he could still feel it. In the cold and dark of the back office it seemed to radiate warmth and light. The small silver soul inside still pulsated with vibrancy, comfort, and love. Not even Kaiba and his senseless cruelty could destroy that.

"I won't let you down," he whispered. Blue Eyes seemed to smile. "Not again. I can't." He met Professor Hopkins's eyes. "We're not going to give up on him. Take me there—I'll find him myself if I have to."


End file.
